Alex Rodriguez continues to look like a shell of his former self, taking another 0-for-4 to extend his latest slump to 1-for-23 and drop his average to .207. A-Rod is hitting .143 (9-for-63) in June, struggling as he works his way back from his March hip surgery. ...

As bad as A-Rod has been lately, he was hardly the only goat last night, as the Yankees went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, stranding 11 runners, including eight between the second and fourth innings.

Jorge Posada struck out four times for only the fifth time in his career, combining with Nick Swisher, Mark Teixeira, A-Rod and Robinson Cano to go 1-for-19 in the No. 2-6 spots in the lineup. ...

Despite the offseason spending spree - $423.5 million for Teixeira, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett - the results have been largely the same as last season.

A year ago, the Yankees were 37-33 after 70 games, a third-place team sitting six games behind the Red Sox in the AL East. Last night's loss - their ninth in the past 13 games - dropped the Yankees to 38-32, five games behind the Sox, who have won 10 of 13.

Just checked my scoresheet for July 22, 2004. First game of a DH against Baltimore at Fenway.

Ortiz in 1st: (ccb) triple to left center. "shot lcf, off wall, bounce past 8, roll to rcf"; looks like it took a crazy carom off the wall. where was the rf? the cf chased the ball into rcf and threw it in. birds appealed at 2b, but the ump says flo touched it.

Ortiz in 3rd: (cbfbf) triple to rf. "lined into corner, hit wall and carom by 9 back into rf grass, head first into 3b!"

He also singled in the 5th.

It was the major league debut for Sox starter Abe Alvarez (5-8-5-4-2, 94). Note: "sox on bench wearing caps askew like alvarez does on mound"!

The MFY pitching (exacerbated, probably, by the new park effects) is just dreadful. They're fourth in the AL East in team ERA, runs against, and team WHIP, and worst in HR against, SLG against, and walks.

The blather about their recent hitting woes misses this larger point entirely; the Yankees are the second highest scoring team in MLB, behind the Rays. Of course, I'm not sad to see the NY media misdiagnose the problem yet again.

Here's hoping for continued regression to the mean and fourth place MFY.

I can't believe the Yanks are in basically the same spot as last year after shoveling all that money into those top players.

Of course, I am sporting a devilish grin as I type this ;D

Let's Go Red Sox!

I think it's dangerous to throw a *ton* of money at pitchers. I think Teixeira will put up big numbers -- especially in that ballpark -- for years, but $39.8 million a year for two pitchers is a lot -- two pitchers who are a combined 11-8, and combined ERAs right around 4.00 -- near midseason. That's also a lot of money to throw at a couple of rotator cuffs that could tear at any time. The Yankees spend, but those massive contracts they dole out seem so hit-and-miss to me.

Yeah. I have kept score of every Red Sox game at least since the start of 2003. Games/innings I miss, I fill in later from GDGD. (The sheets start out looking like this.)

Before EI existed, I kept score via internet/radio, but that was back when I was doing my Pedro website, so I typed those right into a webpage to be uploaded. Now I *really* wish I had paper copies of those games.

Back further, I have sheets for whenever the Red Sox were on TV or I was at a game -- dating back to 1986.

Unfortunately, the programs from Fenway from the late 70s and all my scoring pads from the games I watched/listened to from 76-80 or so are long gone.

Don't mean to repeat myself from yesterday, but these first couple years are supposed to be the good ones from the contracts of Sabathia and Burnett, unlike their potentially injury-plagued last two or three years.

So there's a nugget of Schadenfreude to savor there as well.

That RA/RS info makes one think Red Sock was right, and that it will be the Rays we end up against this season.

"...as most Yankee fans know, June has been a pretty ugly month. The Yankees entered June with a record of 29-21 and a half game lead in the AL East. They were averaging 5.4 runs per game offensively, although the pitching had been disappointing with an RA of 4.94 per game.

In June they've only won nine of 20 games, and are scoring 4.7 runs per game. The pitching has been much improved, with an RA of 4.29, but the offense going MIA has been the big problem. They've lost 5.5 games in the standings, although they are still in the wild card lead (tied with Toronto) and 0.5 games ahead of Texas and LA of A."